Esquimalt speeders to soon face calming measures

Speeding vehicles along Old Esquimalt Road are nothing new, but Esquimalt council appears to finally be nearing a decision on how to tackle the persistent issue.

Council budgeted $70,000 to install traffic-calming measures earlier this year, but public works has not yet been approved by council to take action.

Some of the proposed options include speed readers, rumble strips and speed tables, or elongated speed bumps.

At Monday’s council meeting, resident Tony Cond urged the township to take action with the installation of portable speed tables, something he claimed costs only $2,000 per table and does not damage the street’s heritage value.

“We need to move forward,” said Coun. Lynda Hundleby, who suggested staff provide further information on the portable speed tables so that council can make a decision in the coming weeks.

Brame said the traffic calming measures, once approved, should be installed late this year or in early-2013.

Mayor Barb Desjardins and Coun. David Schinbein were ill on Monday, and Dave Hodgins was in Ottawa at a Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.

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In other council news, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Randall Garrison presented a Diamond Jubilee medal to Esquimalt resident Peter Justo for his work with ETAG, the township’s anti-graffiti clean-up program.

“This is a program which I know the police use as a model for other communities,” Garrison said.

Justo was humbled by the honour, and said he works with many other volunteers to keep the program running.

“Without the continuous and constant support of previous and present councils, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Justo said.

“I hope this will always go on. Our budget is very small, but the moral support … keeps us going.”